Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Bummer: FLOW Northside Arts Crawl is No More
For the past 17 years, FLOW Northside Arts Crawl has showcased artists, organizations, and businesses doing great things on Minneapolis’s North Side, especially in the West Broadway area. This week, however, event organizers West Broadway Business & Area Coalition announced that FLOW is over, and the group plans to channel its resources to more urgent causes, like upcoming light rail construction in the area. "We believe that by concentrating our resources on supporting local businesses and promoting economic development, including anti-displacement efforts, we can have a more significant impact on the community and help to build a more vibrant and sustainable future for north Minneapolis,” WBBAC Executive Director Kristel Porter says via press release. Past FLOW events have included parking-lot concerts, gallery crawls, multi-mural creations, fancy dinner parties, and pop-up markets. Much of that could continue on—Open Streets Minneapolis is coming to West Broadway in the fall, for example—just not in the massive, all-at-once capacity formerly seen at FLOW.
Wanna Buy Drake's (Alleged) Buddy's Eden Prairie Mega-Mansion?
When 1161 Welters Way hit the market this week, the Eden Prairie mega-mansion became just one of 11 single-family Twin Cities property listings exceeding 10,000 square feet. Beyond its jumbo size and price tag ($3.5 million), other elements begin to jump out: the interior design that strives for up-scale modern swag; the basketball court; the silk robes in the locker room; the in-ground hot tub. All of that prompted us to wonder who lives there, a question that was already answered by this lengthy report from Eden Prairie Local News. We learn that the owner is mystery man Gabriel Luthor, whose curious Insta lists his occupation as CEO of Luthor Dynamics. After Luthor moved in 2019, EPLN notes that "cavalcades" of luxury cars began appearing outside of "extravagant gatherings" held at the mansion.
"Rumors in the neighborhood spread that Luthor was a successful technology entrepreneur from Los Angeles and a close friend of music star Drake," writes Frank Farrell, adding that the compound has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in upgrades. "Huge parties were held at the home, with reports of men paying a cover charge to attend and armed security present." (Hilariously, Farrell acknowledges he lives down the block.) The story takes dark and litigious turns, including lawsuits, investigations, and, this past January, a "heavily armed" police raid on the mansion; it's worth reading the whole thing, even if you're not typically inclined to pursue gossip from EP's toniest neighborhoods.
Hutchinson Finally Fired from Metro Transit PD
When disgraced ex-Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson landed a job with the Metro Transit Police Department in January, many were left scratching their heads. After all, the guy had already been busted for flipping a cop car while driving drunk at 125 mph, investigated for charging a dubious $17,588 on the company card, and, just a month earlier, a 10-page report from human resources had concluded that Hutchinson had made racist/sexist jokes and threaten staffers during his time as sheriff.
After Metro Transit PD re-hired him as a sergeant (which, frustratingly, they were required to do by law), Hutchinson was quickly placed on leave while they performed their own investigation and concluded that yep, all those things we already knew about were true. According to their findings, Hutchinson policy and procedural violations range from criminal to dishonest to disgraceful, and include carrying a gun while wasted and lying to police. Before his termination in March, which became news just yesterday, Metro Transit PD held a hearing that Hutchinson neglected to show up for. (His extremely messy Instagram, which we explored in-depth, has also vanished.) Meanwhile, Hutchinson has made bank while in career limbo, bringing in over $100,000 from the sheriff’s office and over $123K total between both gigs, all while on leave.
Cub Workers Win
A planned strike at 33 corporate-owned Cub Foods supermarkets has been averted. The union representing around 3,000 workers, United Foods and Commercial Workers Local 663, reached a "historic" tentative deal early Friday with parent company United Natural Foods, Inc., one that includes: $2.50 to $3.50 per hour raises, gains for part-timers, and "landmark" workplace safety advancements. Thus, the first-ever strike in Cub history won't go down from Friday to Saturday, and shoppers will be able to easily acquire their Easter hams.
“What we have done, is we have re-written the history, and the future, for 3,000 souls and countless ahead of us,” worker Pam Wilson said in a statement from the union. “We are a more powerful union now, and we are only going to continue to build our power together.” Representatives of Cub said they were "pleased" in their statement. We'll give the last word to worker Brett Carlson, who spoke with Racket ahead of Tuesday's strike authorization vote. "[Striking] is a last resort thing, and we hate to use it, but sometimes you have to use it. If we don’t fight now, the next contract they’re just going to bowl us over,” the St. Anthony produce manager said. "I want to leave the union as strong as when I came into it. My grandfather helped found it.”
